Stargazing made easy with freeware program

I research migratory birds. So, for the past month, I have been waking up before dawn to go birding. This has given me a chance to do some early morning star gazing. I have found the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky book to be very helpful. But recently, I have discovered a freeware program called Stellarium. It is an impressive piece of software that can show you the sky in real-time from any location you choose. The atmospheric effects and jaw-dropping realistic skylines make this the best star-gazing software I’ve seen yet. And it’s free! The interface is very simple and intuitive making it easy to learn the stars. It gives me a new appreciation for the early explorers who relied on the stars for navigation, without the aid of GPS, software or even laser pointers.